@astro_Pettit updates his #spaceblog Diary of a Space Zucchini as he describes the condition of his flowers. http://go.usa.gov/yXX
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Diary of a Zucchini
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March 7
I am making a second set of flowers.� They are all male flowers, full of fragrance for my crewmates to enjoy.� I see Gardener smile.
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March 8
Oh my aching roots!� I am sick; my flower buds have wilted into little brown nubbins.� My leaves have a fringe of brown that gets wider every day.� The edges are curled and brittle almost like dried out leaves yet I have plenty of tea to drink.� On Earth my leaves would be drooping but here in weightlessness they stay extended and from a distance they do not look sick.� Perhaps my symptoms, thus masked, were not observed by Gardener as soon as they would have been if we were on Earth.� Gardener is beside himself and is working hard to find a solution.� This is not good; I feel in my roots that I may soon be going to the Great Compost in the ground.
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March 10
Sunflower�s leaves are covered with brown spots.� Both he and I are not feeling well.� Broccoli seems to be doing OK.� My gardener says it is something in the tea.� The brown fringe on my leaves is growing.� They do not sing anymore.�
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March 11
Broccoli is not doing well.� His leaves are turning yellow.� The brown spots on Sunflower are growing.� We are dying from some space malady.� Gardener is frantically working to save us.� I have heard that there is nothing to fear about the Great Compost.� My only regret is that I will not be here on the frontier to help in this mission.
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March 13
My gardener figured out what was the matter and is working on a solution.� It is the sour tea that we feed on.� He told me it will take several days before the new tea is ready; these encouraging words are helping Broccoli, Sunflower and me to hold on.� In the meantime, we have been repotted into new plastic bags and have a strict only-water diet.� I understand when a gardener gets sick, sometimes they have to go on a diet.� The compost tea is made mostly from vegetable scraps from their food pouches.� He said their food has a lot of sodium in it, up to 1000 milligrams per serving and they eat 10 to 12 servings per day.� This salt ends up in the compost tea and then goes on our roots.� Sodium salts are very soluble in water and wash out from the soil thus ending up in the ocean.� Potassium salts are less soluble and stay in the soil.� Creatures that originated from the ocean live with sodium and use it for their essential membrane transport processes.� Creatures that originated from the land use potassium and find high levels of sodium toxic.� Ocean creatures, when they walk on the land, have to carry their sodium with them their bodies.� Interesting how creatures adapt to what is found in their environment and what works well for one is toxic to the other.
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March 15
I float on the edge of the brown abyss.� My leaves have fallen off and I am merely a stalk.� I am stripped of my call sign �Rose� let alone even being a zucchini.� Sunflower has lost his leaves and now looks like a tangled piece of green yarn.� Broccoli has only yellow leaves.� I have one root in the Great Compost.� I have heard that you should follow the dark.� Call on me tomorrow and you shall find me compost!
Don's blog also appears at airspacemag.com